Thread: Water Chemistry Aeration vs pH vs KH

i'd always thought with such a large shower filter on my pond, aeration levels would always be pretty high.
But I've been playing around with my pond aeration for the last few weeks using smaller PA45 air pumps.
and moving the airbar position and putting that and the bottom drain air pump on timers to run more.

what i found is that before my pH was always around 7.2-7.5 over 24hrs with KH at 2
but with extra aeration my ph is now around 7.4-7.6 over 24hrs with Kh at 2 exactly the same.
so obvioulsy driving off more CO2 but it has also helped stabilised my pH more so i see less of a swing in 24hrs.

another consequence has been i have had to add a lot less sodium bi carbonate to buffer the water,
so when the pH was dropping to 7.2 due to increased levels of CO2 it must have been consuming more carbonate ions,
but now it doesn't drop so low, i'm not having to add 2 or 3 cups full of bicarb a week on top of my auto dosing to keep up.
and i've even had to back off the auto dosing a bit too...